Werth may have come up short at the end of the Nats' loss on Tuesday night in Philly, but overall he had a tremendous week at the plate. The Nats' outfielder now has hits in his last six games and 10 total during that span. Werth seems to be thriving while batting fifth in the order. In the five hole he is hitting .289 this season with a .904 OPS in 11 games. He has hit primarily at second this season, but has a much better on-base percentage when he hits either fourth or fifth in the lineup.

Tyler Clippard, RP – 3 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 4 SO, 0.333 WHIPClippard continued his season of reliability this past week with three more scoreless outings, all coming late in Nationals' wins. He has still only allowed one run since the month of May and now sits with a 2.15 ERA on the year. In two games against the Padres, Clippard notched two strikeouts in perfect innings, earning his 15th hold of the season on July 5. With Drew Storen's season continuing to devolve and Craig Stammen's recent struggles, Clippard has been by far the Nats' best right-handed reliever not named Rafael.

Storen can't be trusted in late innings given where his stuff is now and with a runner on, it's that much worse. Relievers are out there to be had in MLB, Rizzo needs to find another seasoned, quality late inning guy soon. If Storen rights the ship, then great the club is that much better, but they need to make a move.

Werth's hot streak is very impressive. Remember early 2011 when a bar in DC priced its beer according to his dropping batting average? I was one who preferred him in the 2 hole, but he's proving me wrong, and I'm very happy about it.

ERA is deceiving for short relievers who don't get a lot of innings (Storen's only got 37 IP). His WHIP (1.432), hits per 9 innings (10.5), and HR/9 (1.5) are all way up, though, which isn't good. OTOH, a lot of that is contained to a few outings. He was a little iffy into mid-May, but since then, in 21 appearances, he's allowed no runs in 17 of them, but 3 or 4 runs in the three of the other four.

JZim gives up 1 earned run and Davey pulls him of Ohlendorf with 1 out and men on 1st and 2nd with Guzman at bat. Seconds later the 3 run HR gives JZim a 3 earned run day. He pitched well all game and with Strasburg he gave up 4 runs while he was working with a big lead. We all know how pitching to contact goes with a large lead. In both cases the Nats won.

The other thing about Storen is, he's 25. Do you get rid of a perfectly good reliever for maybe the next decade, under team control for the next several years, and with closer stuff, just because he had a bad homestand? Or even a mediocre season? Not unless you get something really good in exchange.

OTOH, the Staymen record doesn't really portray how bad he was with inherited runners scoring which didn't go on his ERA. Very deceiving adding to his already poor numbers.Specifically, 8 of 17.I happened to be looking it up anyway. : )

I wonder inherited runners scoring percentage is and what it is last 10 appearances.You mean for Storen? Entered 7 times with 11 runners total on base; 2 scored. One was June 25 vs. AZ, the other May 22 in SF.

Sofa what stat tool do you use? I looked at fangraphs for the first time today and either I am old and stupid or something because it was not user friendly.I wouldn't say that, in either case. You might be a bit impatient with yourself. How'd you do the first time you drove a stick shift?

BABIP in WikipediaBatting Average on Balls In Play is supposed to roughly account for what's traditionally considered "bad luck" in hitting balls hard, but "right at" people. It tends to fall between about .280 and .320 for most people, over a significantly large sample size, pretty much kinda sorta regardless of their individual batting average, because the field is the same size for everybody, basically, and you can't really control exactly where the ball is going when you hit it.People who hit the ball harder tend to have higher BABIP, and people who hit a lot of ground balls (which can have eyes) vs. fly balls in play (which usually get caught) (HRs are not in play). Slow grounders, OTOH, tend to become outs. Infield fly balls tend to become outs almost every time.So a BABIP of .149 means Hairston has been hitting a lot of balls at people. A BABIP of about .350 could mean Rendon is hitting a lot of line drives hard, or they just haven't figured out where to play him yet.

The Fish actually have some really good young starting pitching. Jacob Turner (who pitched today) and Jose Fernandez (who we will see) are both very good. I wonder how long they last in a Fish uniform.

I realize Storen had two very tough outings but there is no way I give up on a 25 year old who has great stuff. In my opinion, he will be our closer once Soriano departs and we will be the beneficiary of that. The kid is smart, and will figure things out. I hate how much time he takes between pitches and how he lets an umpires call take him out of his game plan but I still think he is our future.We obviously have players in the "not hot" catagory but I don't think you put SS or JZ in there this week. Last time I checked they both got wins and that is a "hot" stat to me.Go Nats!!Does anyone have information on the names of the players involved with BioGenesis. All they talk about are Braun and ARod. I am wondering if Gio came out of that clean?

The only thing I cannot stand about Storen is how easy he is to run on. That hasbeen the source of many of his problems. Actually that is a problem for almost the entire pitching staff and needs to be fixed badly.

I remember that Morse tended to have a very high BABIP, which made sense because he really stung the ball. I would imagine that if you're batting average is close to your BABIP, what it mostly means is that you are not striking out much. And if your BABIP is actually less than your batting average, you have more more home runs than strikeouts!

I imagine Rizzo is not shopping anybody, but is shopping for somebody, and if it requires giving up pieces, e.g., as in the Gio trade, then he moves them. Although I suppose Morse was an exception to that.

sjm308, I don't recall exactly (biogenesys) and I don't want to throw out names randomly but I am pretty sure that Gio is not linked to anything illegal although he was quite clearly a customer. I think he dodged a bullet here.

Actually [being easy to run on] is a problem for almost the entire pitching staff and needs to be fixed badly. Agreed. When Pudge was here, that was not a problem–it began as soon as he left. Coincidence? I doubt it.

Pitching is not the problem. They need hitting. They need to improve the bench in order to create competition for playing time. In the future take some of the 13mm wasted on pitching and get a bench like Ibanez, Morse , etc. They lost the last two games, where our 4th and 5th pitchers pitched, not because of pitching but because of hitting. Come on Rizzo et al focus.

sofa, I agree with your conclusion. I don't think you deal Storen for a rental. If I were Rizzo I would look for someone who is keen on dumping salaries and is not necessarily looking for prospects. I think Garza will be pricey and so will Norris.

"MLB has been gathering evidence against as many as 20 players with the help of Anthony Bosch, the former owner of Biogenesis, and is in the midst of trying to justify 100-game suspensions for both using and lying – a first offence is normally 50 games. Of course, any suspensions would have an appeals process which could drag out for some time."from the Guardian article linked above

so Harper and The Buffalo who have higher home run rates have lower BAPip than others.No, home runs are not "balls in play" and are not part of BABIP. Batters who hit more fly balls tend to hit more home runs, generally, but they don't figure in the calculation, since by definition, no fielder has a play. Well, maybe Carlos Gonzales…

Somebody suggested Nate Schierholtz yesterday, which is probably closer to what's available. OTOH, if they just got Hairston from the Cubs, I have to believe they discussed Schierholtz and couldn't agree on a deal.

sjm308,If you google 'biogenesis list baseball' you'll get a couple of different versions of the list of those who've been linked to Biogenesis in one form or another. The ESPN and CBS Sports versions seem to be the most complete and authoritative, with 15-20 players each. Both still include Gio Gonzalez as having been linked to Biogenesis, albeit with comments to the effect that he's not believed to have purchased banned substances and is unlikely to face suspension.

As sofa says, HRs are not balls in play. But they are hits, so they raise your BA and are neutral with respect to your BABIP. If you strike out a lot, like Espi, for example, your BABIP may seem high compared with your BA. If you don't strike out much, your BA could approach your BABIP. And if you have more HRs than Ks (Scutaro?), your BA could be higher than your BABIP.I think I have that right. Sofa?

Deuces, thanks for that emendation. I wasn't figuring on unwrapping it, since it's not my expertise, and there are better sources. Keep in mind, it's very difficult to know much of anything, in any field, based on one data point. You have to have something to compare it to, and the more things you have, usually, the better your picture gets.